Converted Tyranid Tyrannofex - #Gunbeast4

In case you're not familiar with my past work on Tyranids, it could be said that I've got a THING for big, beefy Tyranids, and for Tyranid gunbeasts. So it should come as no surprise that my most recent Tyranid project consisted of marrying those two interest into a BIG BEEFY GUNBEAST!

As this is the fourth gunbeast I've made after my Exocrine, Dactylis, and upscaled Dactylis, I decided to organize my posts about the project under #Gunbeast4. 

When Life Hands You Lemons

It all started with me learning the hard way that, if a deal on the internet for a model kit seems too good to be true, IT LIKELY IS. 

I got what I thought were two Tervigon kits for a STEAL of a price...only to find out it was the seller who'd stolen from me when what I received in the mail were two shitty, chinacast recast of a Games Workshop Tervigon kit.

Project #DominaNid3: Sculpting legs on a Tyranid Dominatrix

In my next adventure in livestream sculpting, I take on one of the legs for the #DominaNid3 Tyranid Dominatrix conversion, trying to make a leg big and stompy enough to match the stompy feet I had already planned.

How to Sculpt: Getting Started with greenstuff

I've done a number of sculpting tutorial videos over on YouTube, but if you're just getting started with greenstuff, and you have only 3 minutes to spare, here are my quick tips that you need to know. Once you've got these down, I very much encourage you to check out my other video tutorials on YouTube.

Also! If you're already familiar with my tutorials, and you have a suggestion for other videos I could produce, let me know in the comments below what I can help you sculpt.

Project #DomniaNid3 : Tyranid Dominatrix from a Hierodule rides again

It's that time again: time to return to the Tyranid Dominatrix from a Hierodule concept to see how the intervening years can improve on this community concept.

I call it a community concept since, though I've created two Tyranid Dominatrix from Forgeworld Hierodule models in my time (Tyranid Dominatrix attempt 1, Tyranid Dominatrix attempt 2), it all started with Hydra / Simon Schnitzler and his vision to cut up a pristine Forgeworld model to make something wholly new:

He cleaved pretty close to the classic Forgeworld Tyranid Hierodule model, fixing all of the annoying angry chicken parts of it, but with that he challenged the idea that Forgeworld models couldn't be converted, and he moved the Tyranid Dominatrix concept forward from the classic Epic model...

...into something new and awesome.

And he started something.

Tyranid Broodlord Genestealer Patriarch Conversion - Nyarlathotep

I can't say no to a commission that involves creating a horrible monster. Ostensibly, this one was meant to be a big Tyranid beastie: either a Broodlord or a patriarch for a Genestealer brood that had taken a decidedly Eldrict turn somewhere along the way.

However it could just as easily be any kind of horrible chaos demon.

Usually clients allow me a lot of freedom when developing the design for the beasties they ask me to build for them. This client, however, was pretty exacting about keeping the design very close to the source material, which was this Yugioh card for Lovecraft fan favorite: NYARLATHOTEP!

HORAY TENTACLES! IA! IA! FTHANG R'LEH! 

AHEM.

To say I was thrilled by the challenge would be an understatement. Not only did I get to give flesh to an ancient horror, I got to do it in the service of the Hive Mind!

How To Sculpt Organic Armour - How to Sculpt Miniatures Episode 7

I've been dragging my heels on this one for more than a little while, but I'm happy to announce that my next full-length How to Sculpt video is live on my YouTube Channel!

This one focuses on sculpting organic armour, of the type most commonly seen on Tyranids. However, in this video I also detail how the process for sculpting Dark Eldar armour plates is essentially the same. I also do the whole sculpt big, then sculpt small approach in this one.

I hope you find it useful!

And if you've not been over to my YouTube channel yet, please head on over and subscribe as I'll be releasing a couple more videos soon, and subscribing on YouTube is the best way to get notified about them as soon as they drop.

Happy Sculpting!

How to Sculpt Amatures - How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 6

Got a BRAND NEW How to Sculpt video coming at you, this one focusing on getting started with armatures.

It's also the first wholy new video I've shot in nearly 4 years! I got a bit disheartened with how much work goes into these things, and how little folks seemed to care about them.

But I've been getting a steady stream of subscribers to my YouTube Channel of late, and that, combined with a swift kick in the ass from my brother Hydra, inspired me to get this video shot, edited, and uploaded inside of 24 hours! No dragging my feet on synching audio and editing down. Just a one-shot, direct to digital product.

So it's a little rough around the edges in places, but I hope you like it and find it helpful!

Note: I'm also posting this from my phone, so I'm sorry if it Le Bust.

How to Sculpt Stitches & Sutures - How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 5

Sculpting stitches using greenstuff / epoxy putty is a process that looks like it should be fiddly and complex, but is surprisingly easy to pull off when you have the right instruction. It's for this reason that I'm so excited to share today's video with all of you today. This is easily one of my favourite things to sculpt :D

So, just like how I did with the spinal columns video, I will start by showing you the process in large scale using plasticine (ew), and then move on to show it in small scale in actual greenstuff mixed with apoxie putty.

The immediate application for this technique is for sculpting flesh that has been hurriedly stitched back together on something like a pit slave or a haemonculus flesh construct. However, if you hold back on all the puckering and stretching of the flesh around the stitches, and leave it more smooth, you can easily use this technique for creating roughly stitched leather for things like Ogre Kingdoms, Oruks, and Skaven. Heck, I'm sure that a chaos general could even apply this tutorial with great effect :)

I didn't mention it in the video, as it can be obnoxious, but please click the link to the video on YouTube and like, comment, and share the video from there to get a few more eyeballs on it. I spend a lot of time and effort making these videos for free, so I'd love it if you could help me get them to the widest possible audience!

If you've got any suggestions for videos you'd like to see, please leave them in the comments below. Our next video will be about sculpting organic armour plates for Tyranids and Dark Eldar, and after that I'm wide open for suggestions :)

< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns

How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns

Well, it's been a while, but—inspired by the warm and fuzzy comments on YouTube—I climbed back on the hobby tutorial horse. I present to you How To Sculpt Miniatures Episode 4: How to Sculpt Spinal Columns!

If you've got a long memory, you may recall that this is our second run at a spinal columns video. However, I assure that this video is far more...um...professional...than that video, and far less German :P

This should be useful for any flesh crafting Haemonculi out there, any Hive Tyrants, particularly those looking to craft some massive Tyranid terrain, or maybe even plaguelords or other chaos generals looking to make some fleshy, daemon constructs.

I hope you enjoy it. It is a good deal more in depth than previous videos as it focuses on one topic, and my future videos will be in this style.

If you've got any suggestions for videos you'd like to see, please leave them in the comments below. Our next video will be about sculpting stitches and sutures, and I've got one more slightly Niddier one in the can, but after that we're wide open for suggestions :)

< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications

How To Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications

For the third How To Sculpt Miniatures video, we're going to be combining what we covered in videos 1 and 2 by applying different tools to putty to see the effects they create.

Once again, these first three videos will rehash the information I shared in my original How to Sculpt Miniatures posts, which is best geared at sculpting beginners. However, even experts may discover some helpful tips :)

With this one posted, we've finished covering the first three articles, so next time I'll be sharing a re-do of the shakey-cam How To Sculpt Spinal Columns video I did back in the day.

As always, please let me know in the comments below if you have ideas for things you would like to learn to sculpt in a video.

> Next: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 4 - How to Sculpt Spinal Columns
< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 2 - Putty

How To Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 2 - Putty

Next up in my series of How To Sculpt Miniatures videos: how to use epoxy putty!

These first three videos will rehash the information I shared in my original How to Sculpt Miniatures posts, which is best geared at sculpting beginners. However, even experts may discover some helpful tips :)

Once we've got the first three videos taken care of, we'll move into new territory, like sculpting armour plates, stitches and sutures, and spinal columns. I've also been rolling around the idea of doing a tutorial on sculpting nurgle-y things like worms, pustules, gross drippy stuff, and third eyes. Anyone interested in that sort of thing?

As always, please let me know in the comments below if you have ideas for things you would like to learn to sculpt in a video.

> Next: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 3 - Skills & Applications
< Previous: How to Sculpt Miniatures: Video Tutorial 1 - Tools

How to Sculpt Miniatures 6: How to Sculpt Hoods

When posting photos on them online, someone requested I do a tutorial on how to sculpt hoods, so here it is: my long-delayed return to my How to Sculpt Miniatures series!

So remember these guys? They're my Genestealer Cult Enforcer squad, which is a fancy, made-up name for a bunch of hooded, shotgun-totting Neophyte who are meant to escort my cult's higher-ups into battle.

To make them stand out and seem covert and insidious, I wanted to give them hoods to match the hood I will eventually put on my Primus, based on this guy:

So, without further ado, I'll get into the materials, tools, and process you need to follow for sculpting your own hoods!

Haemonculus Coven - Timelapse of Display Board Construction

While working on the display board for my Haemonculus Coven for Armies on Parade 2016, I decided to set up my camera to make a timelapse recording of the sculpting and some of the painting.

Unfortunately, I'd already built the actual board when I had this idea, and I stopped the timelapse at the point where I pretty much messed up the painting on the flesh bits and had to redo a lot of it.

So, though this is incomplete, I hope that people find it interesting. I've sped it up a bit as it's a bit boring to watch someone sculpt spinal columns for several minutes!

Enjoy, and let me know if you'd like to see more videos!

Haemonculus Coven Display Board for Armies on Parade (Flesh Friday)

So, as is usually the case, I realized on about September 14th that Games Workshop's in-store Armies On Parade event was happening in a month. This, really, should be the one event that is marked on my calendar and I work towards all year. I don't actually play that much 40k, and mostly do all this conversion and painting work as a means of seeing a concept through to actual models. If I inspire some folks along the way, or encourage them to try to do more with their models, we'll that's great.

But Armies on Parade is pretty much the best possible place to showcase the kind of work I do. 

However, I always realize it's coming up late in the game, and don't have enough ready in time, and blah blah blah.

This year is different.

Haemonculus Venom Coven Conversion (Flesh Friday)

So, in case you're new around these parts, or I haven't talked about it enough, my main goal for my Haemonculus Coven of the Unmarred force is to create a converted, Haemonculus version of every non-haemonculus unit in the Dark Eldar Codex.

A long, long time ago, in a country far, far away, I came up with a concept for a Haemonculus Raider:

It's mostly a Raider with some gribly bits attached, and a Talos as its engine, and I'd played with the idea of having some spidery arms growing out of the middle of it for carrying its passengers. However, it never really worked for me, so I left the spidery arms off.

I've since given more thought to the Haemonculus Raider concept, and the idea of having passengers suspended from it on some kind of meat hooks, and when I make my revised concept for it, it's going to look a lot like this Coven Venom

Introducing Vestigial Twin: The Modern Synthesist Podcast

Hi Everybody!

It's Brother Pink here, and I'm certain that everyone was as thrilled as I was when Mr. Pink started kicking his flesh-crafting into high gear!

I was so thrilled that I started to hound Mr. Pink about recording a podcast with me. By hounding, it was more like this:

Brother Pink: Let's do a podcast!
Mr. Pink: Do I have to do anything?
Brother Pink: No, I'll do everything.
Mr. Pink: SURE!

I decided to call it 'The Vestigial Twin' as it suits the twisted nature of flesh crafting as well as our relationship. If you're wondering what a vestigial twin is, all is explained in the podcast.

Mr. Pink and I are brothers and one of the things that is most similar is our voices. Listening to a podcast with two guys with the exact same voice wouldn't work. I got really pumped about doing some voice acting, so the host of the first episode is Kraekorr, the haemonculus. I really tried to rein-in the theatrics. Also, Mr. Pink addresses this character exactly as if it were his brother.

If you really enjoy this character, I left a couple of extra bits with Kraekorr at the very end, which you are in no way encouraged to listen to.

This first episode we just talk about Sculpting; the action figures that first inspired us, how we first started sculpting, various materials we have attempted to sculpt with, and projects and people that really inspired us.

There were a few hiccups: Mr. Pink is a tad too quiet (he now has the 2nd best mic on wirecutter.com), and I have a slight case of the sniffles. The call drops soon after I talk about helium filled terrain ideas and Mr. Pink may or may not encourage listeners to plunge their hands into buckets of plaster (which will cause serious harm).

The Opening song is 'Drop' by a Japanese band called Thee Machine Gun Elephant, and I have absolutely no permission to use it. The song at the end is 'Parasite' by a great band called Gammage. They are such a great band, they actually gave me permission to use their song!

We really hope you enjoy our podcast. Bare with us, it is the first episode. There will be immeasurable improvements for the next one.

Here it is, The Vestigial Twin:
The Vestigial Twin, Episode 1, Sculpting

Converted Dark Eldar Grotesques & Aberration (Flesh Friday)

What feels like a thousand years ago, I converted the guys below as part of a commission to create a haemonculus coven for a client.

...And they had some cool little details...

...and they took me FOR. EVER.

When I decided it was about time I do my next batch of Grotesques, I wanted to get them done quick and get them painted so I could see how my test scheme would work on them. I made them part of my October Modeling vow of stuff I would get done by the end of the month to keep me motivated.

It worked pretty well:

Coven Reaver Jetbike Conversion (Flesh Friday)

In my ongoing quest to convert haemonculus coven versions of every dark eldar unit in the codex, I've been rolling around the question of reavers for a long time. Well, I always knew that I wanted to convert them to look something like miniature Talos, but I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it off.

Until one day a couple of weeks back when I was just messing around with a Hellion skyboard and a reaver jetbike canopy. I placed the skyboard on top of the canopy, and—BY GOD—it just...fit. As in the two model components pretty much slid together like they were meant to be that way.

Cronos Parasite Engine Conversion Complete! (Flesh Friday)

I posted my thoughts on the Cronos Parasite Engine model a while back. The summary was that, though I love everything about the Talos/Cronos kit and all Our Man Jes did with it, when I hear the description of the Cronos as a soul-sucking parasite, I picture something far worse than the be-tentacled-but-faceless existing Cronos plastic model.

I picture an insatiable, avaristic horror: a gaping, needle sharp maw stretched wide as it hungers for souls. I picture this:

A twisted, dangerous, grasping thing. A soul vaccuum. A monster from under your bed. An utter nightmare from your darkest dreamings.

So I built it, and I'm pretty damn happy with the results. Here's a rough, 360 tour:

I think I'd rather be a Blood Angel

Hi Everybody!

I’d like to say thanks to everyone who checked out my posts on the Sniper Scout.

When I dropped those first three articles, I told myself that I would be able to make a post a week... not true.

With the release of the new Space Marine Codex, Blood Angels took a bit of a hit competitive-wise. The title of the article was meant to be a joke about how often I've converted Dark Angels models for my army... Who's laughing now? Still, this article is about a sergeant dual wielding inferno pistols.... what's more BA than that?